To hire or not to hire remote workers?

The question about remote employees comes up a lot and “remote work” is simply the norm these days, regardless of your opinion of it. I only say that it’s an opinion because of the connotation that some of the older generations tend to have towards their standards of professionalism which are constantly changing along with our society. These debates often come down to the matter of opinion in the end so I’ll try to focus on the facts at least as they relate to my business.

Pro – Costs. Office and all it entails (food, drinks, parking spaces, office equipment and space) tends to be quite expensive in terms of cash. Also in terms of productivity – if you’re dealing with a fire or have stringed back to back shifts I don’t want you driving. If we need to get something done I’d rather you take the 2 hours you would have spent in traffic and use them towards getting things done.

Pro – Talent. Sometimes you can’t get the same level of talent locally. Keep in mind that in the modern world (ex-retail/manufacturing) the “talent” doesn’t only consist of skills but also a social fit with the organization and the people you work with. We’ve used the same designer for the past decade – and I met her twice. She has designed virtually every web site and every product UI at OWN mostly because she knows what I want and has consistently taken my concepts and turned them into reality. Are there better, cheaper, more qualified people in Orlando? In a sense of the above criteria (mind readers) I’d have to say no.

Cons – Taxes. Dealing with the payroll, unemployment, city and state taxing systems is a nightmare. Particularly in the states that still allow you to marry your cousin and where 1/2 of the GDP comes from muddin’ and coon huntin’. If you hire someone out of these states or municipalities (where tax forms are still being filled out on a scantron with a #2 pencil) you will waste a lot of time and money.

Cons – Accountability. Most employees are not accountable. Even in an office setting – where they know every click, screen and email they send is logged, recorded and subject to review – I am constantly seeing people watching NBA videos, posting on the boards, watching Youtube videos or other stuff. The following is from the recent job review:

“Typically he is good. But if it’s one of the days when he decides to take a vacation at his keyboard all bets are off.”

So even though it’s very hard to keep people completely accountable anywhere (without running a military operation) home work suffers from accidental unaccountability. This is when they are actually working but the one time you needed to speak to them they went into the bathroom or went to answer the door or were out to lunch.

Reconciling Cons & Pros

First, you should only hire remote workers if you can trust them.

Second, even though you trust them, it should be convenient and fault-proof to track them – we use video conferencing excessively and we even have video streams to folks and offices on big screens around the clock. When I need to talk to someone all I have to do is look at the monitor and talk to it like you were in the office.

Third, try not to think about the money, think about the goals and milestones. Business owner brain is trained to think in the output per hour per dollar metric. If you shift that to get it done by X metric things get much better. For example – if I can’t reach you when you’re supposed to be at work, and you took a long lunch and you have a vet appointment and your roof is leaking and you need to reseal it right now – ok. But the following items need to be on my desk by tomorrow. Tends to work. This doesn’t mean that your employee won’t want to stab you while working at 4am to get stuff done, but you also aren’t dragging them into a disciplinary meeting because they were an hour late to work.

Remote or stay-at-home work can deliver tremendous benefits to your organization and if you employ some of the technology that’s practically consumer grade and free these days it can do wonders for you. Of course you should track your remote employees better by sign up for Shockey Monkey, which coincidentally was almost 100% developed content-wise remotely. The success of the relationship depends on you as much as the employee – if you understand that the levels of discipline, wardrobe and hygiene at home are not the same as they are in an office then you can start to focus on the results people can accomplish when they are comfortable instead of the results they are forced to achieve when they are tightly controlled. Balancing both at the same time can be a challenge – but you’re hiring remote workers because they are better than what you have locally to begin with so it comes with a bit of give and take either way.